Florida boy, 7, swims 1 hour to shore to get help for family
/#GOODNEWS
Read the story here.
ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Focus
/By staying focused on who you want to be, and what you’re willing to do and not do, you’re less likely to focus your energy on getting people to like you, or excusing harmful behaviors. -Kathleen Smith
When we Grow
/Some periods of our growth are so confusing that we don’t even recognize that growth is happening. We may feel hostile or angry or weepy and hysterical, or we may feel depressed. It would never occur to us, unless we stumbled on a book or a person who explained to us, that we were in fact in the process of change, of actually becoming larger than we were before.
Whenever we grow, we tend to feel it, as a young seed must feel the weight and inertia of the earth as it seeks to break out of its shell on its way to becoming a plant. Often the feeling is anything but pleasant.
But what is most unpleasant is the not knowing what is happening. Those long periods when something inside ourselves seems to be waiting, holding its breath, unsure about what the next step should be ... it is in those periods that we realize that we are being prepared for the next phase of our life and that, in all probability, a new level of the personality is about to be revealed.
Alice Walker, Living by the Word
Recent data science articles - May 2021
/DARPA helped make a sarcasm detector, because of course it did
"Despite all their remarkable progress, (AI) systems remain brittle
Is the Pentagon being pulled into the AI hype machine? Some military experts think so
Types of statistics papers (cartoon)
MIT researchers create a system that automatically cleans “dirty data”
Comparing the two big data frameworks: Hadoop vs. Spark
Conflating geospatial data at scale: A better, faster method of achieving mission objectives
When can a predictive model improve by anticipating behavioral reactions to its predictions?
Organized forgetting
/Those who have power create a desert of organized forgetting. -Sigmund Diamond
Articles of interest about higher ed - May 31
/The Articles of Interest list will be paused for a summer break
***HIGHER ED & COVID
The Future of Virus Tracking Can Be Found on This College Campus
For Colleges, Vaccine Mandates Often Depend on Which Party Is in Powe
Indiana AG says university mandating vaccines violates new state law
***LAYOFFS & CUTS
Stockton university Paid Administrators Bonuses Amid Faculty Furloughs
Redeemer University alumni say dropping French and theatre programs is 'heartbreaking'
***COLLEGE FINANCES
States Spent $2.68 Billion on Private Colleges in 2020
Columbia University to pay $13 million to settle complaint by retirement plan participants
Tuition Discount Rates Reach New High: 53.9% at private schools
***ACADEMIC LIFE
Univ of Oklahoma professor, wife plead guilty to charges involving Department of Energy grants
Two Ohio State Professors Lose Emeritus Titles for resaerch misconduct, sexual harassment
Faculty group investigating two institutions for alleged violations of academic freedom
Professors Want More Guidance on How to Help Students Struggling With Mental Health ($)
Kyoto University Revokes It’s First Doctorate Ever
***SHARED GOVERNANCE
Faculty Sues Wesley College Over Delaware State Acquisition
Shared Governance Was Eroding Before Covid-19. Now It’s a Landslide, AAUP Report Says ($)
AAUP investigation finds eight institutions flouted academic governance norms during COVID-19
National professors’ union investigating Linfield University firing
***NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES
A Mega-Donor donor objected to the hiring of Nikole Hannah-Jones
‘1619 Project' creator Hannah-Jones weighs discrimination suit over tenure denial
Trustee: Nonacademic Background Halted Hannah-Jones Tenure
No clear answers as to why journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones was not offered tenure
***COLLEGE PRESIDENTS
Rice President Announces He Will Step Down In 2022
Former Penn State president has jail sentence upheld
University Of Colorado President Exits With $1.3 Million Contract Buyout
Fresno State announces new university president
***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
The humanities at Christian Colleges
Conflict over 'power and theology' ensues at Southwest Baptist University
Wesleyan College Faculty Condemns Commencement Speech
Wheaton College plaque bearing offensive language to be replaced in the fall
Canada Christian College denied university status, name change
Grants Focus on STEM Research at Christian Colleges
Christian college accused of censoring criticism of school
Judge rules against Christian liberal-arts college in Fair Housing Act lawsuit
Evangelical Colleges Consider Vaccine Requirements for Fall
Bachelorette star played sports at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego
***SEMINARIES
Seminary Built on Slavery and Jim Crow Labor Has Begun Paying Reparations ($)
Religion behind bars: Ruth Graham part of Mississippi’s new prison seminary for women
***CHRISTIAN COLLEGE PRESIDENTS
Azusa Pacific University President to Retire
Trevecca Nazarene University board extends contract of president
Michigan's Cornerstone University announces new president
***TEACHING
ProctorU scraps fully automated remote proctoring
Can Technology Breaks Help Students?
***SEXUAL MISCONDUCT AT CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
Benedictine College chaplain removed after 'Inappropriate conduct' with female student
Moody Bible Institute ‘ill-equipped’ to investigate sexual misconduct, independent probe finds
***BAYLOR & LGBTQ+
Baylor Opens Door to Possible LGBTQ+ Student Group
LGBTQ+ Baylor students are cautious as university entertains creating new chartered student group
***RESEARCH
Do not trust your p-value, be it small or large
Activist Archivists Are Trying to Save the ‘Pirate Bay of Science’
A fresh crop of published findings that have come up null or replicated earlier ones
Legal threats and police searches: Debate explodes over baby shaking science
Scientific-journal publishers announce trans-inclusive name-change policies
***FAKE RESEARCH
Gibberish papers still lurk in the scientific literature
***PEER REVIEW
Can AI be used ethically to assist peer review?
How to respond to difficult or negative peer-reviewer feedback
***RETRACTIONS
Unreliable social science research gets more attention than solid studies
Journals are retracting more and more papers because they’re not by the authors they claim to be
Paper linking frequency of Google search terms to violence against women retracted
Elsevier retracts entire book that plagiarized heavily from Wikipedia
***STUDENT LIFE
Student Fee Lawsuits over COVID-19 shutdown Can Proceed in Delaware, Judge Says
An Illinois Man Waits 80 Years To Graduate From College
College student becomes Chicago Cubs’ first Black public address announcer
Sorority kicks out member for Posting Video Mocking Trans Health Secretary
Colleges grapple with resuming study abroad
Research paints disappointing picture of online internships
How do colleges respond to student arrests?
***GRADUATES
The graduate’s guide to a new world of work
CEO gives Quincy College graduates $1,000, says to give half away
Fewer U.S. College Grads Are Stuck With $25,000 Entry-Level Jobs
***FREE SPEECH
What might a new Iowa law mean for professors’ classroom expression?
Florida State settles free speech lawsuit filed by Catholic student leader
Christian group sues University of Alabama over campus speaking permits
***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT
Six women reported a Louisiana college student for sexual misconduct. No one connected the dots
Lawsuit: 19 women say Eastern Michigan had rape culture, covered up assaults
***TITLE IX
Federal student privacy law does not conflict with Title IX: analysis
Is a Fair Title IX System Possible? (opinion) ($)
University of St. Thomas faces Title IX lawsuit threat over cutting tennis program
***RACIAL ISSUES ON CAMPUS
Oklahoma community college cancels class in reaction to 'critical race theory' law
The fight to whitewash US history through controlling the classroom (opinion)
Boise State Finds No Evidence White Student Was Harassed
Midshipman who had faced expulsion for racist tweets graduates
***CRIME ON CAMPUS
She had contacted campus police more than 20 times before she died (opinion)
7 men plead not guilty in Bowling Green State University sophomore's alleged hazing death
Former Louisville coach, federally charged with extortion
***RANSOMWARE & CYBER SECURITY
Ransomware hack brings down sierra college online systems
New global partnership helps education sector defend against cyber attacks (news release)
Cutting ourselves off from the past
/We don’t talk about it. Denial is our shield. We don’t yet know the damage we perpetuate by cutting ourselves off from the past, by maintaining our conspiracy of silence. We are convinced that the more securely we lock the past away, the safer and happier we will be.
Auschwitz survivor Edith Eva Eger in her book The Choice
Articles of interest about religion - May 30
/***RELIGION AND POLITICS
The Growing Anti-Democratic Threat of Christian Nationalism in the U.S.
***RELIGION & CRIME
NC pastor shot, killed outside his home days after his ordination
79-year-old woman accused of embezzling money from NC Baptist church
***RELIGION AFFILIATION
Religious affiliation is falling in America (podcast)
***RELIGION IN COURT
Lawsuit: Only Christians Could Apply for Jail Chaplain Job
***RELIGION & RACIAL ISSUES
Some Korean pastors say they need to be more vocal about racial justice
***DENOMINATIONS
Southern Baptist decline continues, denomination has lost more than 2 million members since 2006
PCUSA lost over 56K members, 116 churches in 2020: report
This year’s Southern Baptist convention could be historic
***CATHOLIC
The Catholic Church Is Reinstating Priests Accused of Sexual Abuse
***MEGACHURCHES
Illinois megachurch leaves UMC amid LGBT debate, retains ownership of campuses
***JUDAISM
How Jewish is Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah?’ A Forward investigation in 9 verses
U.S. Jews have widely differing views on Israel
***RELIGION & SCIENCE
Research suggests the religion and science debate wasn’t always this divisive
***CULTS
Gun Church That Worships With AR-15s Bought a 40-Acre Compound in Texas
Duggar ’cult’ leads back to abusive teaching out of Bill Gothard organization
***THE BIBLE
'God Bless the USA Bible' finds new printer after HarperCollins Christian passes
***RELIGION & QANON
One-Quarter of White Evangelicals Believe QAnon 'Storm' Is Coming to 'Restore Rightful Leaders'
Evangelicals are flocking to the QAnon conspiracy theory movement
How Hollywood’s ‘Jesus’ Jim Caviezel Went Full QAnon
QAnon is now as popular in US as some major religions, poll suggests
***SATANISM
America's Satanic Panic Returns — This Time Through QAnon
MS-13 gang member sentenced for murdering 15-year-old girl in satanic sacrifice
***PASSING
The Reasonableness of Authority
/There is a strong tendency to suppose that there is no more reason to listen to one man than another in spiritual matters, because the subjects considered are notoriously incapable of proof. The proper conclusion to be drawn, however, is the precise opposite of this. It is because the subjects are incapable of proof that we need to avail ourselves of superior wisdom whenever we can find it.
D. Elton Trueblood, Philosophy of Religion
Goals & Systems
/Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress. -James Clear
Building Self-confidence
/Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade.
Do not be awestruck by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as efficiently as YOU can. Remember also that most people, despite their confident appearance and demeanor, are often as scared as you are and as doubtful of themselves.
Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking
Articles of interest about journalism, writing, privacy & more - May 27
/***COVID-19
New York will raffle off scholarships to kids who get vaccinated
Learning How To Smell Again After COVID-19
***JOURNALISM
These Ex-Journalists Are Using AI to Catch Online Defamation
The news doesn’t set with the sun. What it’s like to be a night-shift journalist.
Google AMP is dead! AMP pages no longer get preferential treatment in Google search
California City Ends Lawsuit Against Bloggers For Publishing Police Records
Russia’s attack on U.S. media has become a test case (opinion) ($)
***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM
Local TV news employment confounds expectations in 2020
Newspaper Layoffs Grew In 2020
New Owner Set for Chicago Tribune, Daily News and Baltimore Sun
***PRODUCING MEDIA
How Did the Pandemic Impact the Video Production Industry?
Vice Media Group now produces more Stories than text or video
In Google’s new world, your phone camera is for way more than taking photos
Spotify will auto-transcribe podcasts over the coming weeks
Why QR codes are here to stay after the COVID-19 pandemic
***WRITING & READING
Does your writing transgress this editor’s pet peeves?
Checking In With Black Bookstores Nearly A Year After 2020's Book Boom On Racism
John Steinbeck’s estate urged to let the world read his shunned werewolf novel
***PLAGIARISM
You Say Plagiarism. I Say Provocation
Plagiarism and how to not do it
***FAKES, FRAUDS & SCAMS
Trump Continues To Push Election Falsehoods. Here's Why That Matters
Covid Vaccines: Could they be magnetic?
Science Had a Misinformation Problem Before COVID. Scientists Want to Fix It
Unvaccinated TikTok Users Believe They Will Be ‘Lone Survivors’
Google now fights fake news in search results. Here's how it works
QAnon believers go undercover to spread conspiracies online…and it’s working
***SOCIAL MEDIA
TikTok Radio is coming to SiriusXM as companies join forces to create ‘exclusive audio experiences’
Twitter axes AI cropping after tests prove racial bias
The Case For Deleting Everything
***DATA PRIVACY
Google Must Face Privacy Claims Over Data Transfers To App Developers
Data privacy bill: All tech giants would have to follow Apple lead
Experian exposes credit scores through unprotected API
Apple’s iOS 14.5 update comes with App Tracking Transparency for better privacy
***LANGUAGE
DARPA helped make a sarcasm detector, because of course it did
Scientists find 'missing link' behind first human languages
Meet the mystery woman who mastered IBM’s 5,400-character Chinese typewriter
How Far Back in Time Could an English Speaker Go and Still Communicate Effectively? (video)
***POETRY
Poetry Challenge: How Has The Pandemic Changed You?
“Dead Souls” is an exceedingly cerebral comedy about the viability of contemporary poetry
The fixed mindset
/The fixed mindset doesn’t allow people the luxury of becoming. They have to already be. -Carol Dweck
Predicting the future
/How much reliance can we place on regression to the mean in judging what the future will bring? What are we to make of a concept that has great power under some conditions but leads to disaster under others? Keynes admitted that “as living and moving beings, we are forced to act … (even when) our existing knowledge does not provide a sufficient basis for a calculated mathematical expectation.”
With rules of thumb, experience, instinct and conventions – in other words, gut - we manage to stumble from the present into the future … The trick is to be flexible enough to recognize that regression to the mean is only a tool; it is not a religion with immutable dogma and ceremonies. Used to make mechanical extrapolations of the past … regression to the mean is little more than mumbo-jumbo. Never depend upon it to come into play without constantly questioning the relevance of the assumptions that support the procedure. Francis Galton spoke wisely when he urged us to “revel in more comprehensive views” that the average.
Peter Bernstein, Against the Gods
butterflies
/butterflies… alone. -Trina Paulus, Hope for the Flowers
The duty of encouragement
/One of the highest of duties is the duty of encouragement ... It is easy to laugh at men's ideas; it is easy to pour cold water on their enthusiasm; it is easy to discourage others. The world is full of discouragers. We have a Christian duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. Blessed is the man who speaks such a word.
William Barclay
Letting Go
/We have to let go of the old thing before we can pick up the new one—not just outwardly, but inwardly, where we keep our connections to people and places that act as definitions of who we are. There we are, living in a new town, but our heads are full of all the old trivia: where the Chinese restaurant was (and when it opened in the evening), what Bob’s phone number was, what shoe store stocked the children’s sizes..
We usually fail to discover our need for an ending until we have made the most of our necessary external changes. There we are, in the new house or the new job or involved in a new relationship, waking up to find that we have not yet let go of our old ties. Or worse yet, not waking up to that fact, even though we are still moving to the inner rhythm of life back in the old situation. We’re like shell fish that continue to open and close their shells on the tide schedule of their home waters after they have been transplanted to a laboratory tank or at the restaurant kitchen.
William Bridges, Transitions
Articles of interest about religion - May 21
/***COVID-19
Fauci says people are "misinterpreting" the new CDC mask guidance
***RELIGION & THE VIRUS
Officials grapple with vaccine hesitancy among Latino evangelicals
15 San Diego Rock Church employees have contracted COVID-19
***RELIGION AND POLITICS
What new laws in Montana and South Dakota say about religious freedom
***RELIGION & BUSINESS
Lifeway Christian Resources downtown Nashville headquarters sells for $95 million
The Legacy Of Harold Camping, Who Falsely Predicted The World’s End, Lives On in Family Radio
***RELIGION & RACIAL ISSUES
How purity culture and anti-Asian racism intersect in some white evangelical circles
***DENOMINATIONS
Russell Moore leaving Southern Baptist position for spot with Christianity Today
Lutherans elect first transgender bishop
***MEGACHURCHES
Founder of Hillsong Church says he had concerns about Carl Lentz for years
A Louisiana megachurch used inappropriate tactics to 'train' teens, ex-interns say
Pastor of metro Atlanta mega-church announces retirement
Saddleback Church ordains first female pastors
***SURVEYS ABOUT RELIGION
Survey finds racial division, stereotyping among Christians
U.S. Jews far less religious than Christians or Americans overall by some measures
***BILLY GRAHAM
Billy Graham subject of PBS documentary
PBS' Billy Graham documentary captures preacher's pull and ambition
How Billy Graham weaponized white evangelical Christian power in America (opinion)
***EASTERN RELIGIONS
Instagram Labeled One Of Islam’s Holiest Mosques A Terrorist Organization
Sikhism Explained: What to Know About This Often-Misunderstood Religion
***CONVERSION THERAPY
***CHRISTIAN MUSIC
There is no hierarchy of suffering
/There is no hierarchy of suffering. There’s nothing that makes my pain worse or better than yours. -Auschwitz survivor Edith Eva Eger
A great scientific truth
/A great scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light but rather because its opponents eventually die. -Physicist Max Planck